USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Historical sketches : a collection of papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1921-1925, Volume VII > Part 14
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From the high ground near the Wayne monument, one gets a great panoramic view of the ground occupied by the army. Commencing at the south and sweeping around to the east, beyond the outer line of intrenchments, were the en- campments of Scott's Virginians, Wayne's Pennsylvanians, Poor's New Yorkers, Glover's Massachusetts men, Larned's New Hampshiremen, Patterson's Vermonters, Weedon's Virginians, and Mühlenberg's Pennsylvanians and Virgin- ians. Nearer in, and commencing at the southern end of Mount Joy, beyond Fort Washington, were Woodford's Vir- ginians ; east of them, Knox's artillery ; a little farther north, Maxwell's New Jerseymen; in the cove or hollow in front of the shoulder of Mount Joy were the Pennsylvanians of Con- way-a gentleman whose name suggests other and different memories; next the river road, near the fort which bears part of his name, General Jedediah Huntington's Connecti- cut troops were encamped. Altogether thirteen brigades are named, and there was an aggregate of possibly seven thous-
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and men. In modern "efficiency" work it would be thought a trifle top-heavy with administration.
Long before the work of "restoring" the camp grounds was undertaken, the sites of huts on the north side of the river road were easily discerned. When the structures were originally built, the earth was banked up around the logs as an additional protection against the biting cold, and in the ruins of later years the regularity of the plan of this diminutive village was well preserved. Varnum's Rhode Island and Connecticut troops lived in it, and a model of one of these early bungalows has been erected by the Colonial Chapter, Daughters of the Revolution, upon the primitive foundation. Across the road, the ground slopes sharply to the south, and in the midst of the field there is the grave of John Waterman, and the Waterman monument, erected by the Daughters of the Revolution in memory of the "Soldiers of Washington's Army who sleep at Valley Forge."
General George Weedon, who commanded a brigade of Virginians, and whose military home at Valley Forge is said to have been in what was the Stephens house, is the one who has put us almost upon speaking terms with the army in the large part of the campaign. In the orderly book that it asso- ciated with his name, the characters in that historic opera- tion are very real and human, and the plain unvarnished narrative of their doings as recorded in the military diary is doubtless the greatest contribution to the literature of that time. For instance, it records among other infinite details of camp life, the findings of the courts-martial-and there were a prodigious number of them. "Lashes well laid on upon his bare back" was the customary sentence, the stripes ranging in count from thirty to as high as five hundred. If a man wasted his ammunition by firing his piece unneces- sarily, thirty-nine for that; desertion one hundred; stealing one hundred, and so on.
Valley Forge in winter then, with none of its present day opportunities, was not exactly the place to keep one's feet warm, and so there were desertions aplenty, and excessive drinking and gambling-all of which was grist for the judi- cial mill. One officer, Lieutenant McDonald, was tried for
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"unofficer and ungentleman-like behavior in taking two mares and a barrel of carpenter's tools on the lines, which mares he conveyed away, and sold the tools at private sale." The court was unanimously of opinion that the Lieutenant was guilty of facts alleged, but that "they do not amount to unofficer and ungentleman-like behavior," and he was acquitted. How like a modern Senatorial whitewash it sounds. Another lieutenant was found guilty on the same charges, of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman "in taking Jack Brown's allowance of whiskey, drinking it and refusing to pay for it." He was sentenced to be dis- charged from the army-and deserved it, for a crime so heinous.
Still another officer, in the commissary department, escaped some of the rigors of a Valley Forge winter by get- ting caught at grafting. He was sentenced to refund $200, and to be brought from "the Provost Guard mounted on a horse without a saddle, his coat turned wrong side out, his hands tied behind him and be drum'd out of the army (never more to return) by all the Drums in the Division." A captain, too, is accused of "being so far Ellivated with Liquor when on the Parade for exercising as rendered him incapable in doing his duty with precision," and he was acquitted because the court could not settle the age-worn question as to how much liquor makes a man properly, or improperly, "soused." And still another officer got away from awful Valley Forge after he had "his sword broke over his head on the grand parade at Guard mounting."
The headquarters of Lord Stirling are still preserved, standing along the road to the south and west of Mount Joy. Just to show what a day in camp meant, on the program for a day when this officer was the Major-General, the orderly book promulgates instructions regarding treatment of sol- diers afflicted with the itch; details are appointed for the execution of a soldier who deserted, and aided two prisoners to escape, and instructions are issued that in order to avoid discrimination between play and gaming, both cards and dice are forbidden under any pretext whatever-evidently
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there were quibblers over the noble art of horse-breeding in those times, too. This New Jersey officer with the decidedly undemocratic name, figured at Valley Forge as one of the warm friends of the Commander-in-Chief in that infamous Conway affair, and it was he who had been instrumental in disclosing the existence of the plot, while the army was encamped at Whitemarsh.
The John Moore house is associated with the career of another brave and able man, General Peter Mühlenberg, whose dramatic entrance into military affairs has been em- balmed in T. Buchanan Read's poem in "The Wagoner of the Alleghenies." The incident is the occasion of his fare- well sermon in his church at Woodstock, Virginia, when, after pronouncing the benediction, he threw back his min- isterial robe, and appeared in his continental uniform: "There is a time for all things-a time to preach and a time to pray; but there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come." His biographer has shed a great deal of light upon the prevalence of the personal jealousies of officers with regard to their rank or precedence, by publish- ing the correspondence Mühlenberg had concerning his own status. They are virile documents, and wonderfully illuminative of a situation that theoretically should have killed the American cause.
On the old plan is indicated a mill which is marked as Jenkin's mill. It is driven by a stream which is fed heavily from a spring that bubbles from the side of a meadow near the Moore or Mühlenberg house. The stream is quite popu- lar today with local anglers, and it had similar seductions in the earlier days. I wonder whether Washington had time for a day off when the trees were budding at Valley Forge? He certainly knew of the place, for on July 30, 1787, he and Gouverneur Morris left Philadelphia during a recess in the Continental Convention, "to get trout" in this stream-not to go fishing, as a less masterful man might put it, but "to get trout." The next day he paid a visit to the cantonment which he says he found largely in ruins. The homestead attached to the mill in later years sheltered Joseph and Mary Read, the progenitors of a large family of illustrious men
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and women who rendered most distinguished service in military, scientific and intellectual affairs of the nation.
On May 18, 1778, as a climax to the long months of soul-killing life in the camp, came the brilliant sortie to Barren Hill. An expedition of twenty-two hundred men, with five cannon, was organized and put in charge of the youthful LaFayette, with instructions to obtain intelligence of the enemy's designs, obstruct any attack on the camp, and to generally harass their operations. Washington cau- tioned LaFayette that the detachment was a very valuable one, and that its loss would be a severe blow to the army. The party included six hundred militia under General Pot- ter, and some fifty Iroquois Indians, with Captain Alan MacLean's independent company. LaFayette crossed the river at Swedes' Ford, and reached Barren Hill by the Ridge road. Upon the high ground south and west of the church, he disposed his columns, and advanced the scouting party of MacLean's independent and Iroquois for two miles nearer Philadelphia. The six hundred militia were ad- vanced along another road to the southeast, but they disap- peared without firing a shot, on the first sight of the British, and have nothing further to do with the story of Barren Hill, except for the trouble they made.
The Schuylkill river and the steep rises on its east bank at Spring Mill furnished a natural defense for his lines in that direction, and so with LaFayette's men in place, the British plans developed. One division under General Grey, of about two thousand men, approached his left wing through Germantown, from the southeast, with the purpose of opening the attack at the church. Another division, under the personal command of Generals Howe and Sir Henry Clinton, advanced by the Ridge road to engage LaFayette's front, and so certain were they of their success, that it is said arrangements had been made for a pleasant little re- ception for the distinguished young Frenchman upon their return to Philadelphia. General Howe's brother, Admiral Lord Howe, also accompanied the division, in the expecta- tion that he would be one of the escort back to the city.
A third division of the British reached Plymouth Meet-
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ing-house on the morning of May 20th. This was under command of General Grant, and consisted of eight thousand men and fifteen pieces of artillery, and it had made a long detour, east, north and west, through Frankford and White- marsh; and then he "waited at the church," when with a few of his men posted nearer Matson's Ford, he might have wiped LaFayette off the military map. In advancing to this position, the militia under Potter had been scared off, and LaFayette's outposts to the east were gone. On that morning, word came to LaFayette that a column, Gen- eral Grey's, was advancing on his left wing; soon after, word was brought that another column was already occu- pying the only road that led back to Valley Forge, by way of Swedes' Ford. And then the feeling spread among the soldiers that they were surrounded. If he moved to the south he would have fallen in with the division headed by the "committee of reception" from the Meschianza.
But happily some one that day remembered the road leading down past the ancient Spring Mill, to another one leading northwest along the Schuylkill, that was still open. Quickly changing front, a part of his troops offered resist- ance to Grey's party, the stone wall of the church-yard affording shelter from the expected attack from that direc- tion. Other columns were sent through the woods to the north to make a "demonstration" to the advancing Grant- who halted for a council over the right course to be pur- sued. Then LaFayette was quickly dropping his men down the road toward the Schuylkill, General Poor leading the van, and LaFayette brought up the rear with all the rest. Stedman sees nothing inglorious in it for the British, but the sight of the Americans making their way down the road past the mill prompts him to observe that "the disorder and precipitation apparent in the rear of that column suf- ficiently indicated the terror with which they were attempt- ing their escape."
The retreating Americans eventually reached Matson's Ford, somewhat in a hurry, no doubt, but all accounts seem to agree, in good order. They crossed in safety without losing a man, but with the British in close pursuit, one of
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their officers telling how they could see the Americans dotting the Schuylkill like the "corks of a seine." Grant was nearer the ford than LaFayette, but the God of battle turned him to the south, and he and General Clinton met at the church. Clinton, naturally enough, was quite peeved over affairs, for they found the American camp abandoned, and they undertook pursuit by the very track which LaFayette had taken. There was evidently some sort of collision at the Ford when LaFayette was getting his precious cannon across. Stedman says forty Americans were lost. Washing- ton's official report says the whole operation cost nine men. But "the ladies did not see M. de la Fayette, and General Howe himself arrived too late for supper."
LaFayette's headquarters at Valley Forge were in what is known as the Wilson house, and as such it is certainly among the richest in historic flavor. After a night on the high hills commanding Matson's Ford, and discovering that the British had gone back to Philadelphia, chagrined and disappointed, LaFayette re-crossed the river, went back to Barren Hill, and in a few days was back at Valley Forge, where Washington received him with many demonstrations of satisfaction. The Commander-in-Chief, too, took occasion to commend him generously in his report to Congress, touch- ing the whole affair, on May 24th. An interesting function that was held in this old house was the dinner given by LaFayette to his fellow officers from France, in honor of the French Alliance.
But there is another aspect of Valley Forge with which the world is getting better and better acquainted. The sombre colors of intrigue and bickering and privation were being woven into the chrysalis from which was presently to emerge the spirit of real national unity. It was at Valley Forge that the idea of "this," not "these," United States got its great impetus. The markers all over the Park today tell what it was, up to the time that Baron von Steuben came to hammer an American army out of disorganized state levies, all of whom were bubbling with their local prejudices and personal jealousies over official appoint- ment and whatnot. On June 19, 1778, the troops evacuated
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Valley Forge, and started in haste after Sir Henry Clinton's seventeen thousand troops and his twelve-mile supply train. When the clash came at Monmouth, on the 28th, the wonderful weapon fashioned by the Prussian drill-master on the dreary hillsides proved its worth nobly, and but for the perfidy of that "damned poltroon," Charles Lee, the war would have ended then and there. Valley Forge was the birthplace of the American Army.
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Our Curios*
By KATHARINE PRESTON
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A historical museum is almost like a fairy story, for it hardly seems possible to us that the exhibits really be- longed to and were used by people so long ago, and in their time seemed as up to date and wonderful as our mod- ern wonders do to us. As one walks around the room, and looks at the articles in the cases, one cannot help being struck by the ingenuity and pains displayed in making the things that we buy without a thought of the making.
I want to call your attention to some few of the things we have of interest, and I hope that it will not be long before all of our curios are arranged so that they may be easily seen.
It seems right to begin with a little frame in the case at the right of the door, as you enter the room, that holds a few strands of Washington's hair. The same case also con- tains two brass candle-sticks used by him at Valley Forge, and some pewter spoons of about the same period. Who, in these days, would spend hours making a napkin ring of cross-stitch on perforated cardboard, or a pincushion or needle-book of a scrap of silk left from a dress, worn on some state occasion. But in 1840 work-baskets, needle-cases, boxes and bags were part of every woman's life. Such articles were always at hand, for a woman or a girl was seldom seen without some fine sewing or knitting, and even the tiny tots of six and eight had their samplers on which they must do their stint each day. Here we see, also, part of a bride's dress of the nineteenth century, with samples of
*Read before the Society, April 28, 1923.
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two other dresses of calico and silk; the kid gloves of a bride of 1850, with a ruffle of ribbon around the top, fin- ished with a large bow; her wedding shoes of white satin, stitched by hand, and soled by the old-time cobbler, with- out heels; a man's wedding stockings, knitted with an elab- orate design up the front; some old knee- and shoe-buckles of 1740, and various samples of gay old ribbon. There are several pairs of old spectacles with the extension arms, and some with octagon-shaped lenses, two tortoise-shell combs used in the stately hair dressing of the olden times; hand- knitted mitts; linen mitts; silk gloves; a wonderful quilted bonnet; a Quaker cap of 1820; several hand-made baby caps; some old lace under-sleeves, and various lace and embroidered collars, in shape not unlike some of ours of today. The jet bracelet, the cut rubber locket and chain, and the cross-stitch fans make us almost see the stately company of long ago; and the two dolls of 1830 and 1840, with the poke bonnets and stiff dresses of young ladies, recall the quaint little children almost as staid and stiff as their dollies. Note the knitting-needles one hundred years old, made of whale-bone, with half a spool on the end to keep the knitting on; the queer needle for making hair- nets; the ivory needle for pegging mitts; the small netting- needle used one hundred and fifty years ago for making silk hair-nets; the mother-of-pearl snuff-box, and the queer- shaped bottles supposed to contain snuff; the Barlow knife so dear to the heart of a boy, and the various singing-books that remind us of the old-time singing school.
Many of you will be interested in the scrivener's writing- case of 1780, with its quill pen and ink holder, the case containing some small sheets of note paper, with narrow edges of pink and blue, other larger sheets with heavy embossing, the little diamond-shaped seals, the red wafers and the wax for sealing, all recalling the days when letter writing was more of a fine art than it is today. The old valentines, all lace paper; birds, flowers, and the senti- ments mostly composed by the sender, in the case of per- forated cardboard, with a picture elaborately worked on it, are quite different from our modern ones.
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The old time-tables and railroad tickets, of 1842, on the Norristown and Germantown Railroad, and the bridge tickets for the Matson Ford and DeKalb street bridges, make us realize what changes have come about in com- paratively recent times. The minute Hebrew scroll and the Jewish phylacterie, and the various medals and postage stamps all have their story to tell.
In the war case, you will see the gay plumes and rosette worn by a soldier of 1812. Anthony Wayne's pistol is one of our cherished relics. We have also a couple of old flint locks, once used on the guns bearing that name; a Confed- erate fife from the battle of the Wilderness; a piece of a Flag from the frigate "Cumberland," which was sunk by the "Merrimac," and several pieces of wood from the same vessel; a shingle from Meade's headquarters at Gettysburg, and some bullets found near the same place; a bead bag found on the battlefield of Fredericksburg, and a piece of wood, with a bullet encased in it, found on the battlefield of Chickamauga. Then there is Jeff Davis' ink-stand, and a piece of wood from his bedstead; a rusty old bayonet found on the Harry farm at Conshohocken, apparently very old; a broken sword and scabbard, and an oil-stone and horn used in sharpening scythes. From the Spanish-Ameri- can war we have the name plates of the "Balboa" and the "Rita," captured by our Navy, and a blotter from Moro Castle. There are also various cannon balls, epaulets, badges, spurs, cap-boxes, a sword cane carried during the riots in New York, and a German sword cane. Relics of the Indians are found in the tomahawk, arrow-heads, battle-axe and brass beads used in trading with them. On the lowest shelf are an American helmet, a German helmet, and a Canadian police helmet.
I wish I could tell you in detail about the old china and glass, but I shall have to leave that for some one who is an authority on such things, and content myself with just mentioning some of the treasures in this case. There is the large yellow cider pitcher, and the white pitcher that tells the story of Colonel Ellsworth, the first officer killed in the Civil War, who was shot on the stairs of a hotel by a Con-
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federate soldier; a rare Castleford sugar bowl, from the Christopher Saur family; two old tea-caddies; a curious old coffee urn; a number of old cups and saucers, some without handles; and the little glass cup plates, used to set the cup on, when the coffee or tea was poured into the saucer, to cool it enough to drink. There is also an old blue vase, and a ginger jar from China; a queer old-time tea pot; some blue wash-basins and pitchers of Washington's time; a wonderful old soup tureen and a gravy bowl; a miniature of the tureen, and from the same set of china ; three glass goblets, probably made in the glass-works in Bridgeport, in 1785 to 1800, and known as Colonial Ameri- can glass; a lily of blown glass, from the Albertson glass- works; an old glass perfume bottle, a vinegar tester and two glass salt-cellars, one hundred and two hundred years old; two high glasses with B & D stamped on them; a green glass stein, over a hundred years old; two old sand boxes, used a hundred years ago as a blotter is used today ; a rare old pie-plate and a souvenir plate from our Centen- nial of 1812-1912. One of our latest gifts is a full service of Britannia ware, in beautiful condition, and one hundred years old. We have the old bell from the Pennsylvania Female College at Collegeville; some wooden mortars and pestles, so useful to the housewives of long ago, to grind spices with; an old fluid lamp, and various old fat-lamps, so small that one wonders if they did more than make darkness visible, and some interesting old vases inlaid with mother-of-pearl. There are two earthenware butter churns, without dashers. Just a constant shaking brought the butter. I tried it once with a glass jar, after these churns were presented, and found that it took lots of shaking, and still more patience, but I got the butter. There is a fine big earthenware jug, with two spouts, and some plates of dif- ferent kinds, and two Canton china salad dishes. The old fire hats and water-buckets recall the days of The Pat Lyon, Norristown's first fire engine, which is still to be seen at the Montgomery Hose House.
Downstairs, on top of the case at the left of the front door, as you enter, you can see an old hat-box for a man's
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high-crowned, broad-brimmed beaver hat; a wonderful old basket, and an officer's helmet, used in our army, but now somewhat out of fashion. In the case are a wonderful ex- ample of the old quilted skirt, two children's dresses, some little shoes laced on the inside, a beautiful shawl, a Swedish apron, some old sewing-boxes and baskets, and two Friends' bonnets, now so seldom seen, even in Philadelphia during Yearly Meeting. A tortoise-shell tea-caddy with two silver boxes, one for green, and one for black, tea; old scissors; candle-moulds; snuffers; old knives and forks; various powder-horns and flasks; an iron stand and two smaller stands for irons, made at Saurman's Iron Works, as sou- venirs of Jennie Lind, I think about complete the collection.
Historical Sketch of Flourtown *
By SAMUEL YEAKLE
On March 23, 1904, I had prepared and read, before the Irving Literary Society of Flourtown, a paper concerning the principal places of interest in this locality, and as there have been some changes and improvements since then, it will be necessary to add some matter not at that time referred to.
To write a history of any locality requires much time and painstaking research, and can not be done hurriedly when the desire is to record events truthfully and carefully, and cover the ground thoroughly.
With the facilities at hand, I have endeavored to gather some facts which I trust may be of interest to those who may be present, or who may read these lines.
Flourtown, not Flowertown, as it is sometimes incor- rectly written, is one of the oldest villages in the state of Pennsylvania-if it be correct to call it a village, since the very recent improvements, and increase in the number of houses, seem to dignify the place with the name of Town.
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